OFF ROAD AND UP A MOUNTAIN FOR THE HONDA PIONEER AND ATV

Gareth Wyn Jones has lived and worked on Tyn Llwyfan farm all his life, just as his forefathers before him. As well as farming beef and sheep on the challenging terrain, he is also secretary of the Carneddau Mountain Pony Society and is a devoted ambassador of the Carneddau pony, having been involved in the preservation of the breed since childhood. 

You may recognise Gareth from the recent BBC series The Family Farm, where several families with no experience of farming spent their summer living and working on his north Wales hill farm. 

He is passionate about connecting the public with food and farming, and is not only an ambassador of the Carneddau ponies, but the entire rural way of life. “Farming is not a job,” he says. “It’s a way of life and it’s 24/7.”

There have been ponies roaming these mountains for thousands of years, ever since Celtic times. “The herd grazes over 27,000 acres of northern Snowdonia and is jointly owned and cared for by seven families,” Gareth says.  

The several hundred ponies that graze the Carneddau mountains are completely wild. Gareth’s family’s involvement with the breed spans a remarkable 350 years. “Henry VIII ordered the destruction of feral ponies that weren’t strong enough to carry knights in armour,” he says. “But local farmers safeguarded the herd on the mountain and have continued to for all that time.”

In late autumn, the almost mythical ponies are rounded up by local farmers and volunteers using quad bikes, motorbikes and dogs, and brought down to a farm near Llanfairfechan to be counted, recorded and checked for any welfare issues before being returned to the hillside. 

Although the herd is jointly owned by a group of families, the whole community is involved at the annual gatherings. This is invaluable, as each member knows the terrain of the mountain, which at times can be rocky, steep or boggy, making it a dangerous place to traverse. 

These ponies are cunning and can be quick, so it’s with military precision that separate groups of people split up on the hillside to drive them this way and that until they reach the lower levels and can be corralled down lanes into farmyards. 

During the gathering, there’s a complete span of age groups, from small children right up to the elderly. “It’s important that the next generation sees what we do and learns why we gather every year. That’s how we all learnt and it’s going to be down to them in the future.”

Conservation benefits

The horses live in small family groups, wandering the mountain together. Recent genetic research carried out by Aberystwyth University suggests that the Carneddau ponies are a unique breed with DNA isolated from every other horse species for at least several hundred years. 

The ponies are also one of the last remaining collections of free-living ponies in the United Kingdom. Although there are other groups of ponies free to graze hills or moors around the UK, the Carneddau are less intensively managed, with any intervention coming only once a year at the annual gathering. 

The Carneddau ponies also provide important conservation benefits to the mountain. “Not only are the ponies important to the culture and heritage of north Wales, they play a vital role in the mountain ecology of Snowdonia,” explains Gareth. 

This is down to the way the herd grazes, controlling invasive weeds and bushes, while maintaining a mix of grazing and habitat that attracts endangered species such as the red-billed chough, a member of the crow family.

When down from the mountain, the ponies are carefully checked and monitored with any welfare issues dealt with. “They are incredibly tough,” explains Gareth, “and because of the extensive nature of their grazing, they don’t have many health issues.”

After being down from the mountain for about a day, the group is let back up the mountain for another year, with farmers checking the animals in between. “We have to preserve this unique group of ponies,” says Gareth. “For many other groups of wild horses, conservation has come too late and they have been lost.”

Honda Pioneer proves indispensable

Having been lucky enough to take part in the Carneddau Pony gathering, I can honestly say that I have never taken a utility vehicle anywhere as challenging as the Carneddau mountains. Accidentally, we found ourselves on the route up the mountain only meant for two-wheelers or ATVs, not the heavier utility vehicle we had. 

We were met with scepticism by our hardened Welsh farmer counterparts, who fully expected us to get stuck. “You know that if you get bogged down, there’s no chance of anyone coming to pull you out, don’t you?” they said. The idea of trying to haul half a tonne out by hand on a freezing cold mountain only strengthened our resolve. 

Yet at each stop, they looked round to see us still there, having traversed extremely challenging – and at times terrifying – terrain. In fact, Gareth joked that he didn’t expect us back for the warm Welsh tea at the end of the gathering. 

ATV vs UTV

We have run a Honda Pioneer 700 on our sheep and beef farm for over six months. Despite the industry’s move towards utility vehicles, we have always stuck with an ATV, believing the luxury and expense of a side-by-side has always been a step too far for us as mere sheep farmers. That is, until now. 

Yes, an ATV is manoeuvrable and lightweight, especially compared to some of the diesel utility vehicles on the market. Despite badgering Honda that it needed to bring its much-appraised Pioneer to the UK, I admit that I was sceptical about how a petrol model would go down with UK farmers. 

The old adage is true: farmers are tight. So when faced with having to fill up with petrol, which they don’t get at an agricultural rate from the pump, some are bound to baulk. Yet most ATVs are petrol, so they still have to go to the garage for fuel anyway, and we were pleasantly surprised that the Honda Pioneer doesn’t use that much more than our Honda TRX500 ATV. 

All weathers, all terrains

We use our ATV on a daily basis to feed, gather and check animals in the field in all weathers. The Pioneer 700 is powered by a 675cc liquid-cooled OHV single-cylinder four-stroke engine. The transmission delivers three drive modes, including 2WD, 4WD and 4WD with differential lock for those really sticky situations. It’s so easy to drive, even my 78 year-old mother can get in and go straight away thanks to its automotive layout. 

The beauty of having a petrol UTV is the niftiness of it. It’s almost as quick off the mark as a quad, which is essential when rounding up sheep, while in 2WD it’s quick to react. When asked what they liked about the Pioneer, my stepson and partner both commented on how it was almost as manoeuvrable as a quad and fast enough to go on the road without being scary.

One-way road

Once you’ve had a utility vehicle over an ATV, it’s very difficult to go back. UTVs are just so useful and you soon get accustomed to the extra space, load capacity and the luxury of having a cab in all weathers. Having had a utility vehicle, the thought of feeding sheep in the depths of winter without a cab now fills me with dread. 

Not only can you take a passenger or multiple dogs in the front with you, there’s the option of ‘speccing up’ your side-by-side to have windscreen wipers, stereo or even a heater. But without doubt, the most useful feature of a utility vehicle over an ATV is the rear cargo bed. 

Not only that, but you still have the flexibility to tow a trailer or feeder thanks to the Pioneer’s 680kg towing capacity. Although we still have an ATV, the Pioneer has proved itself on so many levels and we’re converted.